Traveler's cheques have been used for many years by travelers rather than cash because the traveler's cheques can be replaced without significant detriment if lost or stolen while traveling. In recent years, traveler's are often replacing printed paper traveler's cheques with prepaid cards, which can be used similarly to a credit card, debit card, or the like, except that prepaid cards are paid for in advance. Similar to traveler's cheques, prepaid cards can be replaced if lost or stolen, and may be easier and quicker to replace than credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, or the like. Travelers typically use or spend the traveler's cheques or prepaid card balances at various businesses such as retail establishments, restaurants, hotels, and the like. These businesses then collect the monetary value of the charge from the issuer, for example, through a payment network.
In the past, AMERICAN EXPRESS has sold traveler's cheques and prepaid cards to customers through a large number of business partners located throughout the world. AMERICAN EXPRESS typically contracts with these business partners to sell AMERICAN EXPRESS traveler's cheques and prepaid cards to customers. AMERICAN EXPRESS typically requires that its business partners report sales to AMERICAN EXPRESS within a certain time period after each sale, and remit the appropriate amount collected for the sales to AMERICAN EXPRESS. AMERICAN EXPRESS typically reviews reports from business partners, and sometimes discovers discrepancies or exceptions in the reports. Such exceptions may include, for example, a discrepancy in the inventory of traveler's cheques, an error in cheque or card number, underpayment, overpayment, missing information, duplication, failure to report, or the like. In the past, AMERICAN EXPRESS has communicated with business partners regarding exceptions, for example, by mail, phone, e-mail, or the like, in order to attempt to resolve the exceptions. Other companies in the traveler's cheques or prepaid cards business have typically used a similar system to resolve exceptions.
In the prior art, resolution of exceptions typically required the attention of personnel to assemble the necessary information, contact business partners, and follow up if needed. In addition, a backlog of exceptions would usually accumulate, resulting in delay in addressing each exception. Further, some methods of communication, such as e-mail, were not secure and risks existed that confidential information would be compromised. Still further, in order to satisfy the business partners, exceptions were often corrected without the business partners being held accountable. As a result, business partners often did not learn or care to avoid repeating the same mistakes that caused the exceptions in the first place.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved system and method for notifying business partners of exceptions such that exceptions can be fully or partially corrected in an efficient, timely, and secure manner. A need also exists to facilitate business partners' learning from exceptions such that the exceptions are not often repeated.